Friday, August 21, 2009

Assam Prawns


Assam Prawns is a Penang speciality dish. I love this dish, the sourish tamrind taste and the sweetness of the prawns is such a good combination. You are guaranteed to find this dish at any Economy Rice stall in Penang. I haven't eaten this dish for many many years, I had the impression it's messy handling tamarind pulp and had no idea where to get it too!

Thanks to the increasing migration of Asians to Melbourne, many Chinese grocery stores now sell ingredients that weren't available years ago, and they also come in easy to use form. Like this Tamarind Pulp Concentrate I found in the store the other day, all i needed to do is to marinade the prawns with this concentrate then pan fried. How easy can it be?!! I am so happy to be able to eat this dish again and it brought back many fond memories of Penang.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Chinese Pumpkin Cake (Steamed & Pan Fried)




Pumpkin is in season, only $0.99 per kg in a green grocer. I have wanted to make chinese pumpkin cake for awhile, first time tempted was when my friend Sarah tried it out in a care group. I finally stop procrastinating and gave it a go, following Florence's recipe for both the steamed and pan fried version.


I find the pumpkin taste not as strong as i would like it to be, might try to modify a bit next time. Red bean paste does go well with the pumpkin cake. I used the ready made red bean paste from chinese shop but it is a bit sweet. But then i can't really complain too much because I am too lazy to make my own red bean paste from scratch :)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Radish Cake (蘿蔔糕)




Chinese Radish cake is one of my favourite yum cha item. It is usually steamed and then pan fried before being served in chinese restaurant, but I like the steamed version. Eventhough the pan fried version is yummy (especially if it's a little bit burnt) but the steamed version is full of unpretentious radish flavour, I just love it!

What is even better is it's actually quite easy to make and only involved a few simple ingredients: radish, rice flour, chinese mushrooms, dried shrimps and chinese sausages (I used pork meat instead of chinese sausage as it is healthier and taste good too). Using 2.5kg of radish i was able to fill 6 small aluminium round trays to share with friends and family.